Congratulations on Your Magical Girl Duties

21 – Interlude – Separate Nights

The frantic day had finally reached its end.

Nothing much happened after. We just gathered again and received various instructions from the company commander magical girl.

Like how we wouldn’t have much to do tomorrow, given our hard work today. Or how our living quarters, having dealt with the most monsters, would receive magical merit points.

Especially, how Whitey, who finished off the last monster, would be granted a special vacation.

After all of that was done, I came back to the living quarters and collapsed onto my bed, which is where I am now.

Whitey and Sora had gone to wash up for a bit, so I was alone in the living quarters. Meaning, I could sleep without anyone bothering me.

But sleep just wouldn’t come.

“This is dogshit.”

It was so fucked up.

Being driven out to deal with monsters, I could understand it somehow. After all, my identity is currently that of a magical girl, so facing monsters is only natural.

I wouldn’t even expect flexibility. This place is a collection of lunatics anyway. Like the military, you’re the idiot if you expect anything.

Social reputation?

Of course, it’s screwed.

But there was something even worse than that.

“Unbelievable, you son of a b*tch.”

To think I’d be cursed out by a monster.

Like a Pentecostal bursting into tongues, the monster, who couldn’t even speak, suddenly started slinging words.

And that wasn’t all. The moment that monster awakened to language, the first thing it did was rant about how I wasn’t a human being.

Even before I could argue back, the monster escaped by committing suicide.

I was wronged.

Truly wronged.

Even a monster doesn’t see me as a human being.

At this rate, wouldn’t I look like an even more serious mental case than a magical girl?

Honestly, when you consider it, I’m just a normal person with a normal way of thinking.

The more I chewed it over, the more a simmering rage began to bubble up.

“Pulling a disappearing act with suicide? You son of a b*tch!”

That hollow roar of fury didn’t last long before fatigue washed over me.

“Hah, damn it.”

I definitely overdid it today.

I’d only meant to test the waters, see how well my body moved, but it moved better than I expected.

Thanks to that, I’d acted a little too exuberantly without realizing it. No surprise I was exhausted.

Well, looking at it one way, it’s a good thing.

At least I shouldn’t suffer any aftereffects.

Unlike before, when even breathing was agony, my body felt incredibly comfortable now. Almost like it wasn’t my own.

Anyway.

“Gotta sleep.”

Completely drunk on the languid sensation, I drifted back into slumber.

In that instant, a hesitant voice cut through.

“Hey, are you asleep maybe?”

Opening my eyes, I saw Whitedog’s face peering down at me. Sora stood a little ways off, silently watching us both.

They must have showered while I was dozing.

And now, talking to me so abruptly.

“What is it?”

Perhaps because my sleep was interrupted, a voice sharper than I intended barked out of my mouth.

But surprisingly, Whitedog didn’t throw a fit.

“Um… well… that is…”

Just stammering, letting his words trail off into nothing.

Gone was the cocky demeanor he’d shown earlier. Now he just seemed to be watching his own feet.

I didn’t really feel like grilling him.

I was just too tired.

“If you’ve got nothing to say, scram. I’m sleeping.”

“W-wait just a second!”

No sooner had I issued the eviction notice than Whitedog was desperately clinging to me. Like a puppy afraid of being abandoned.

Why was he acting like this?

He came at me like he wanted to kill me just a while ago.

“That…I’m really sorry for the violent way I spoke to you at first.”

“For calling me ‘darkie’?”

“Yeah, truly sorry.”

I wondered if it was a joke, but seeing his sincere expression, it seemed he was trying to apologize in his own way.

“Why the sudden apology?”

“Well…”

‘Whitey’ trailed off slightly, cautiously continuing while watching my reaction.

“Unlike what I heard, you’re not actually all that bad… I think I discriminated against you too much…”

“Is that so?”

“Especially since, thanks to you, I got vacation for the first time for achieving real results… I really needed this vacation this time.”

More than anything else, Whitey continued to express gratitude for getting the vacation. He probably had a desperate reason of his own.

“You needed the vacation that badly?”

“Yeah…”

“I see.”

Whitey then lowered his head.

“I’m sorry, I was wrong until now.”

“Okay. Just do better from now on.”

I nodded appropriately.

“Really…? For real…?”

But even so, Whitey, it seemed, hadn’t even considered that I would let it go so easily, and was asking me again.

It was absurd.

He apologizes, and then why is he acting like *this*?

“What are you so puzzled about? Just don’t want me to accept your apology?”

“No! That’s, it’s not that, it’s just that I didn’t think you’d let it go so coolly… Other people, no matter how many times I apologized, were always angry with me until the very end…”

I could understand that well enough.

Even I, unlike the magical girl I knew, didn’t expect the actual magical girl to be a lunatic.

How much greater would the sense of incongruity be when encountering me in person compared to just receiving information about me?

Well, what can you do?

He’s apologizing this much, I have to let it go.

I am a warrior, after all.

“It’s fine.”

Besides, this much is nothing.

“Discrimination was worse in the other world, anyway. What you did doesn’t even register, so don’t worry about it.”

Compared to that other world, it barely registers as playful teasing.

That other world was the true world of discrimination.

“Really? What did those other-world folks do?”

“I’d confess my feelings, and instead of saying they’d date me, they’d just start crying. You know?”

“Uh…”

“The human discrimination was seriously intense. Wasn’t it?”

“…”

Whitey fidgets, silent.

In that instant, Sora swiftly barges into the conversation.

“Senior, that wasn’t discrimination, it was distinction.”

“Shut your trap.”

In any case, it’s a good thing, ultimately.

Looking back, Whitey has somehow started calling me just ‘you’ instead of ‘darkie’.

He’s not using my name, but still, for a piece of trash like him to realize his mistakes and reflect is truly a remarkable improvement, wouldn’t you say?

When you think about it, I’m the one who made it happen.

My heart swelled with a faint pride.

“At least he’s treating me like a person now.”

“Ah, but you’re not a human. How could a human do that to their grandmother?”

“This little punk, seriously.”

Well, the fact that he still doesn’t see me as a proper human remains.

At that moment, Sora bursts into the conversation once again.

“Since we’ve made amends, how about we throw a small welcome party for Senior?”

Holding a large bottle in one hand.

“What’s this?”

“Water. Here you go.”

“Oh, not bad.”

Even just water would have been enough for me. Water so pure like this, I’d scarcely tasted in this other world.

I drained the cup Sora offered in one gulp.

A sharp tang bloomed on my tongue.

The aftertaste was intensely bitter.

“…This is alcohol.”

“It is water. Just with a few…impurities.”

“You crazy b*tch, seriously.”

She really is insane.

Right there on the label, in Hanja, it says ‘alcohol,’ and she calls it water? Breaking open a bottle in the dorm, a place of utter restraint?

Even Shiro was tentatively holding out her own cup, like this was perfectly normal.

The sisters are a matched set of lunatics.

“Are you two really crazy?”

“You don’t want to drink Magical Water?”

“Fine! Then don’t drink it!”

Sora scowled and snatched the bottle away.

“Just give me another glass of water.”

Of course, I took it back right away.

“Senior, you just said you wouldn’t drink it.”

“You must be Jesus. It was clearly water, but it turned into alcohol once it passed my lips.”

Sora stared daggers at me, without a word.

I held out my cup, unfazed.

“You don’t give it to me, I’ll report you and have you nailed to a cross, got it?”

“Senior, you’re a real b*stard.”

“Sora, did you call me?”

“Not you, Unnie! And don’t even answer to that in the first place!”

In the end, Sora poured the drink with a grumble. A pair of amber eyes, laced with displeasure, bored into me.

“That personality of yours, kicking old ladies, it never goes away.”

“You want to die, really.”

And so, our own little party began.

*

Captain Magical Girl felt her mind reeling.

Out of the blue, a man had arrived at the unit as a magical girl. And it wasn’t even like he volunteered; he’d been dragged here. When she later confirmed it separately, it turned out it wasn’t entirely untrue, either.

*Why the hell is a guy like that here?*

It wasn’t as if he was alright in the head, either.

A deserter who hadn’t been caught even during the Kaijin Invasions.

A con artist with a schtick about spending ten years in another world.

A lunatic who claimed to be a lunar warrior.

Any one of those would make him abnormal, but all three were jammed into the same person.

Could you really consider that person normal?

No, was he even human?

*What the hell were the higher-ups thinking, sending him here?*

No matter how many times she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

She knew the thoughts of the higher-ups were beyond the comprehension of those below them, but this time, she couldn’t even hazard a guess.

However.

“Magical Battalion Commander, it’s me.”

“Oh, you’re here?”

The most incomprehensible person was standing before her.

Magical Girl Pale Crow.

Her superior, the Magical Battalion Commander.

The Magical Battalion Commander was the most baffling individual Captain Magical Girl had ever met.

And there were plenty of reasons why.

A non-existent mascot.

A magical girl who remained transformed at all times.

And.

The fastest person to ever become a Magical Battalion Commander.

*Where the hell did she come from?*

Especially the third point was just too strange.

She used to be a magical girl they didn’t even know existed because she’d never once shown her skills, but recently, she suddenly rose to prominence and climbed to the position of Magical Battalion Commander faster than anyone.

Yet.

*She hasn’t shown anything, has she?*

The Magical Battalion Commander hadn’t so much as battled a grotesque, let alone cast a single spell.

He justified it as an office job, but the sheer amount of leeway he received from others made it seem impossible.

Even with powerful backers, there were limits.

Were there truly so many who followed him unconditionally?

Was his charisma, contrary to appearances, remarkably deep?

Or…

‘Was he controlling them, somehow?’

Making them act that way?

‘I don’t know.’

Some, speaking of the Battalion Commander Magical Girl, would say she’d changed completely.

More precisely, they said she’d transformed overnight within the short span between the initial grotesque incursions and her awakening as a Magical Girl.

But…

‘The people who said that have all disappeared, haven’t they?’

Those kinds of comments stopped surfacing at some point.

And so, the Magical Battalion Commander was an anomaly in many respects. In terms of skill, in terms of history.

But the strangest aspect was something else entirely.

‘What’s she thinking?’

It was utterly impossible to discern her schemes.

Just look at today. When the Magical Company Commander had urgently inquired a moment ago, the Magical Battalion Commander offered only incomprehensible replies.

Indifferently, as if it were nothing.

─ “Just give her a standard-issue magical wand and send her off.”

─ “The grotesques are hardly a threat. Oh, maybe one is, but it’ll be fine.”

─ “It’s alright. Don’t worry. I’m sure of it.”

The Magical Battalion Commander said not to worry, but the Magical Company Commander couldn’t help but worry.

Of course, she wasn’t concerned about Kim Si-yul being dropped into a horde of grotesques.

The Magical Battalion Commander had stressed its irrelevance, and besides, it wasn’t the Company Commander Magical Girl’s place to care whether that person lived or died.

‘Judging by the drivel she spouts, she’s better off dead.’

Rather, the Company Commander Magical Girl was worried about the very fact that she’d driven Kim Si-yul into a death trap.

‘There’ll definitely be talk about responsibility, I suspect.’

Someone was bound to be held accountable for this.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

Kim Shi-yul wasn’t just anyone. He was someone that the magical girl Purple Snake, one of the only two Magical Lieutenants, paid particular mind to.

Simply put, he had the power of a magical girl’s very own top dog backing him.

And they sent someone like that out to die?

This wasn’t a matter one could simply brush aside.

The repercussions would be staggering.

Blocked promotions, of course, and the prospect of being saddled with all sorts of dirty work. To say that one would be edged out of the political game would be stating the obvious.

It would mean that life wouldn’t feel like living at all.

‘Looks like I’m about to get royally screwed over first…….’

Naturally, the fallout wouldn’t spare the company commander magical girl, who was under the magical battalion commander.

No matter how much she thought about it, she just couldn’t understand.

As she’d said before, the thoughts of those high up were not for the lower ranks to decipher, but the case of the magical battalion commander felt somehow different.

The former was merely a question of pure curiosity.

The latter wasn’t just a simple query.

‘Something’s up.’

It was unsettling.

She didn’t know the exact reason. It was merely that her experience as a magical girl for a considerable period, and her gut instinct, subtly sounded an alarm.

“But what brings you here at this hour?”

“I came to deliver some materials. You know that magical girl who suddenly retired last time, saying she couldn’t use magic anymore?”

“Ah, yes. She possessed some rather decent magic.”

Even as they exchanged these words, it was difficult to shake off the chilly feeling.

It was clearly something regrettable, yet she didn’t express any particular regret. Understanding that this was due to her position as an executive, she still couldn’t help but feel it was a bit too much.

‘Still, she was a magical girl under her command…’

Was she talking as if it were someone else’s business? The company commander magical girl quietly mulled over the question.

At that moment, a clear voice tapped on her thoughts.

“Is there something you want to ask?”

“Ah, no. Magical Battalion Commander.”

“You have the face of someone who *wants* to ask something. It’s alright. Tell me.”

The Magical Battalion Commander wore a calm smile. But to the company commander magical girl, that smile felt only chilling.

Like the smile of one watching an insect’s antics.

But what could she even ask?

Why did you throw Kim Si-yul into that viper’s nest?

‘No…’

That, above all else, was impossible.

The Magical Battalion Commander hated repeating himself. To be precise, it bordered on abhorrence.

She’d already inquired about it over the phone; to ask again now would be suicide.

In that instant, the Magical Battalion Commander urged her on.

“Speak. Quickly.”

Staring intently at the Magical Company Commander.

Cornered, almost driven, she blurted out,

“I’m just… wondering why you sent Kim Si-yul of all people to *that* dormitory.”

“Ah, that?”

Though the Magical Company Commander’s words were spurred by the pressure she was under, it wasn’t just a random question.

It was a genuine curiosity, after all.

“Yes, frankly, that dormitory is ostensibly for peers, but really it’s just a collection of the most maladjusted magical girls we have.”

“That is true.”

The dormitory Kim Si-yul was assigned to was… special.

Not in a good way, but in a bad one.

Not quite bad enough to be sent to Magical Green Camp, but still magical girls who weren’t suited to living with others.

The so-called dregs, all gathered in one place.

‘One’s comparatively normal, following in her sister’s footsteps, but the rest are… a bit much.’

That was why she couldn’t help but wonder.

“We barely managed to achieve some semblance of balance when one of them retired, but now with another added… I don’t know what will happen. They’ll probably fight like cats and dogs.”

Kim Si-yul was a bomb.

A ticking time bomb, waiting to go off.

If things went south, he’d grab anyone by the collar, regardless of rank – a mad dog. If he was in an even fouler mood, it wouldn’t end with just a collar grab.

‘He even spoke casually to me, that b*stard.’

He dared to treat even the Magical Company Commander that way. What would happen if he had a conflict with someone of equal rank?

‘It’ll be a disaster.’

It certainly wouldn’t end peacefully.

“Wouldn’t it be almost… better?”

“Pardon?”

“I almost wish they’d just fight it out already. To the point someone draws blood, seriously.”

“……”

The Magical Company Commander wordlessly directed a gaze filled with doubt towards the Magical Battalion Commander.

At that moment, the Magical Battalion Commander opened his mouth.

“Do you know what *Gudok* is?”

“*Gudok*… you mean?”

“Yes, it’s when you put insects in one place and make them devour each other, leaving only the strongest one alive.”

*Why bring that up out of nowhere?* The doubt in the Company Commander magical girl’s eyes deepened.

The Magical Battalion Commander continued speaking, his tone indifferent.

“Similarly, if those failures fight each other to the death, wouldn’t at least one of them remain who is… useful ‘to me’?”

“No, but…still…”

The Company Commander magical girl trailed off.

*That’s a far too dangerous idea.* Even if they’re all failures, did they need to be treated like insects?

Moreover, he especially emphasized the phrase ‘to me’.

*What on earth is he thinking?*

*’Normally, he’d say ‘us’ or ‘everyone’ in a situation like this’.*

Without realizing it, a protest surged to just below her throat. She wanted to impulsively ask if the Magical Battalion Commander’s beloved stag beetle, the one he pampered, was also the result of *Gudok*.

*’But this isn’t something I should ask…’*

Fortunately, the Company Commander magical girl didn’t utter those words.

Even if she was a magical girl, she was, broadly speaking, an office worker.

In Magical corporate life, one had to be careful with their words.

Especially when the other person was a superior whose true intentions were impossible to read.

If she made a mistake, she might suffer Magical *Murahachibu*. Meaning she would be helplessly subjected to insidious social lynching among magical girls.

“And.”

At that moment, the Magical Battalion Commander gave a slight smile.

“If those failures expend their energy fighting each other, it’ll be easier for us, won’t it? They’ll be too busy biting each other to pay any attention to what we’re doing.”

“That’s…true enough.”

The Magical Company Commander nodded.

The Magical Battalion Commander offered a smile, cold as frost.

“That’s why I shoved that damned son of a b*tch in there. Just so happened there was a vacancy, too.”

An unusually sharp and petulant remark, unbecoming of the Magical Battalion Commander.

However, that aside, what the Magical Battalion Commander said wasn’t entirely wrong.

If the dregs were busy tearing each other apart, they wouldn’t pay any mind to what the Magical Officers were up to.

Surely, the attention of the other magical girls would naturally gravitate towards the brawling rejects. Unless things escalated too drastically, of course.

‘In that case, a little skimming from the Magical Snack Fund…’

Wouldn’t be noticed. The Magical Company Commander rapidly constructed future plans in their head.

“Truly, you are the Magical Battalion Commander.”

Only then did the Magical Company Commander’s expression relax.

They’d somehow managed to field the Magical Battalion Commander’s not-quite-a-question, and unintentionally created an opportunity to buy a new car.

“Anyway, let’s keep an eye on things. If something ‘useful to me’ remains after they beat each other senseless, that’s fine, and even if there isn’t, they’ll exhaust themselves. Either way, ‘I’ win.”

“Yes, it all seems so… favorable.”

And so, the two magical girls, without a word, simultaneously smiled. Desperately hoping the rejects would tear each other to shreds.

And, at that very moment.

Kim Si-yul and Rei, who, according to the two magical girls’ expectations, should have been ripping each other to pieces.

“Fuck! We’re besties now, for reals!”

“Cheers!!!”

“Another round for everyone!”

Were, literally, becoming the closest of friends.

“Hey, friend, wanna play a little secret game with uncle?”

“What kinda play? Leash walking?”

In a form that neither the Magical Company Commander, nor even the Magical Battalion Commander, could have possibly conceived.

“Nah, a grievance game.”

Simply put, in the worst possible way.